A tubular-shaft medical instrument of the type described in the introduction has been known (German Utility Patent No. DE-GM 93,17,535.3), which can easily be disassembled without the use of a tool and can therefore be cleaned and sterilized more easily and above all more thoroughly. At its holder-side end, the guide tube has a coupling sleeve, which is detachably connected to a coupling tube arranged in the guide sleeve in the manner of a bayonet catch. The actuating rod is detachably connected by a rod coupling to a coupling rod establishing the connection with the actuating lever. The actuating rod thus consists of two parts, which are or can be connected to one another by a manually detachable coupling.
In this prior-art tubular-shaft instrument, the removable guide tube with the actuating rod and the surgical tool can be rotated into any desired rotary position around the axis of the guide tube in relation to the holder by means of a rotary mount in the guide sleeve of the holder, and it can be fixed in a gradual locking manner by means of a rotation position-locking means.
However, the manufacture of such tubular-shaft instruments is very expensive, because they consist of a great number of individual parts, some of which are of a complicated shape, which cause high manufacturing costs and assembly costs.
In another prior-art tubular-shaft instrument (DE G 93,07,793.9), the actuating rod is made as a one-piece, continuous rod, and it is directly connected to the actuating lever. The guide tube with the tool arranged at its end, which may be, e.g., gripping forceps, scissors or the like, can freely rotate in both directions around the axis of the guide tube in relation to the holder; however, neither the guide tube nor the actuating rod can be removed from the holder. The actuating rods cannot be detached from the actuating lever, either. This makes cleaning and sterilization, which must be performed after each use, very difficult.